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How good is Singapore for women to work in?

Singapore is far from being the best country for women to work in, a new International Women's Day research by Finder has revealed.

In fact, it was the worst amongst 16 countries that were compared.

Singapore ranked lowest (16th) on the metrics for gender wage gap , average weekly working hours and the number of paid holiday leave days.

Here's how Singapore compared with other countries on these metrics.

Gender wage gap: 

  • Singapore - 20% pay gap between women and men
  • Denmark - 5.73% pay gap between women and men

Number of paid holiday leave days:

  • Singapore - 17 days including 7 annual leave days and 10 paid public holidays
  • Austria - 43 days including 30 annual leave days and 13 paid public holidays

Average weekly working hours:

  • Singapore - 45 hours
  • Netherlands - 20 hours

Women representation on boards: 

  • Singapore - 13% of board positions are filled by women
  • France - 40.80% of board positions are filled by women

That said, Singapore did not rank the worst for everything. In fact, the country came in third for the difference women have saved for retirement compared to men - behind Sweden and Austria which tied in first place.

Further, Singapore ranked sixth for female participation in the workforce. According to World Bank data cited in the research, 60.31% of Singaporean women participate in the workforce, ahead of Australia (59.18%) and the UK (56.86%).

View the full infographic below:

Priya-Feb-2019-Singapore-ranking-working-women-infographic-finder-provided

Singapore's ranking by metrics

Priya-Feb-2019-Women-ranking-finder-country-screengrab

Top countries for working women

1st place - Denmark

2nd place - Norway

3rd place - Finland

4th place - Sweden and Austria

6th place - Germany

7th place - Ireland

8th place - France

9th place - Canada

10th place - Netherlands

11th place - United Kingdom

12th place - Iceland and New Zealand

14th place - Australia

15th place - United States

16th place - Singapore

Methodology

The researchers at Finder sourced data from the 16 countries' government, private industry and prominent media sites.

The countries were then ranked the countries for each metric on a scale of 1 (best) to 16 (worst).

The lesser points the country scored overall, the more favourable it is considered for women to work in.

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